1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an authentication system that authenticates members via the members' mobile terminals and, more particularly, to an authentication system with enhanced security.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a commodity sales system, each customer is registered as a member, and a point is accumulated when the member purchases a commodity and conveniently used to purchase a commodity in the future. In this point accumulation-type commodity sales system, there are cases in which whether a member is a valid member or not is authenticated when the member purchases a commodity at a shop.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-47957 discloses an authentication system that authenticates members using their mobile terminals. In this system, a mobile terminal reads member identification information indicated on a member card, such as a point card, in the form of barcode and sends the read member identification information to a server, and then the server authenticates whether a member is a valid member or not based on the barcode information received from the mobile terminal.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-72707 discloses a system that performs authentication using a one-time password (OTP) generated based on member identification information such as the ID number of a member. This authentication system determines whether a member is a valid member or not by indicating member identification information and an OTP generated based on the member identification information on a paper medium in the form of predetermined marks, and reading and interpreting the two marks indicated on the paper medium. Since this system uses both member identification information and an OTP, security is enhanced.
Meanwhile, the authentication system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-47957 is problematic in that member identification information may be fraudulently used when a member card is lost, and security is not sufficient. Furthermore, the system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-72707 is problematic in that member identification information and an OTP are printed on a paper medium and then used for authentication, so that a paper medium is required and also authentication cannot be performed using a mobile terminal.